NATHAN Buckley has refused to use an inexperienced team as an excuse for the Magpies' poor showing against Adelaide in the NAB Cup on Friday night.

The Pies were handed a 77-point loss by the undefeated Crows, after entering the contest with 12 players yet to officially make their AFL debuts.

Adelaide, however, brought a wealth of experience back into their side, including captain Nathan van Berlo and veteran Brent Reilly.

"You could easily put it down to personnel," Buckley said.

"But we're not going to use that. We expect everyone that puts on a Collingwood guernsey to perform at the level required and to fulfill their role.

"And we probably had some players who were substandard this evening."

Buckley was full of praise for the Crows, however, claiming Adelaide will be ‘hard to beat’ this season.

There was just eight points separating the sides at half-time, but the Crows showed no mercy in the second half, outscoring Buckley's side 13 goals to two.

"Adelaide are going to be a pretty good side playing their best football," Buckley said.

"If you give them an inch they'll take a mile and they did tonight.

"If they play that well during the year they're going to be hard to beat."

Buckley said the Crows' style of play under Sanderson was visibly different to the one he saw as an assistant at Collingwood last year.

"It's pretty clear that Brenton's had an influence in regards to the way they play at this early stage," he said.

"There's definitely been modification into where their forwards set up and their structure and their running patterns.

"What was displayed this evening was a very well-drilled unit that believed in its style of play."

Harry Thring covers Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: AFL_Harry.

The views in this article are those of the author and not of the AFL or the clubs.